Based on a spot report
filed by John Castillo, duty investigator, it read that the fire call
was tapped by one Reuben Yboa at about 12:00 midnight of March 11,
2008.
It was the Catbalogan
Shopping Center located at Rizal Avenue, Catbalogan City which was on
fire. Razed is a concrete three-storey building owned by Mike Mendoza.
The report added that
fire trucks from Paranas and the Catbalogan Chinese Volunteer Fire
Brigade also aided the firefighters in the operation.
However as of this
time, the cause of fire and estimated damage is not yet known. No
casualty and no one was injured in the incident.
Artemio Tabaranza,
City Fire Marshall when interviewed said that he seeks new
firefighting equipments to anticipate the city’s booming businesses.
If he would be asked, he said he would request for an aerial ladder
truck to anticipate for high rise buildings in the new city.
He added that he would
also request for hand held radio for better coordination and
communication with those in the fire scene and the other firefighters.
He said he would also request for a foam proportioner equipment.
A foam proportioning
system is used to mix firefighting foam with a stream of water, when
the foam extinguisher solution is delivered, it generates a foam which
effectively extinguishes the flames of chemical and petroleum fires as
well as Class A materials which would otherwise not be effectively
extinguished by the application of water alone.
Tabaranza said he
received a call then in October of last year from the city budget
department asking him of his needs. It was then when he enumerated the
things he needed.
However, up to now his
office has not received any of those he requested.
In a call to the city
hall, PIA learned that Mayor Coefredo Uy is in Manila and that OIC
Perfecta Sabenicio was in charge.
Subsequent call to
Sabenicio yielded negative results as she said she does not remember
exactly the allocation the Sanggunian had for the fire department.
When PIA called the
budget department, an employee said that a meager P75,000 a year is
allocated to the city fire department.
Meanwhile, the city
fire department said that this March being a fire prevention month,
the department has done a kick off motorcade on March 1 and drumbeat
the theme: Prevent fire, be informed, be prepared!
Tabaranza also said
that they are conducting lectures in schools and offices about fire
prevention for the whole month of March.
Come March 28, his
staff would participate in a Fire Olympics in Tacloban City where his
group’s mettle would again be put to test.
